Eyes of an Infected
by ISecondSunI
Summary: This letter is written from the point of view of someone who is infected. His names Jim, He is sharing his final moments with you via a letter. In his letter he recaps his moments prior to his infection.
1. Origins

Hello citizens of earth, living ones at least. My names Jim, I'm 25 years old. I currently live in the outskirts of The New York City Quarantine Zone. The current date is somewhere in the summer of 2021. I think its May, I could be wrong. I was raised in Burkeville Virginia. It took me about 4 months to get where I am today, and I have been here ever since. You see, when I was travelling I use to find letters. I would pillage houses, and do things I regret. I would always find letters though. Some of them were directed to a certain person, and others to the public. Like this letter. I always thought to myself that these letters were a waste of these people time, and they should worry about surviving. Mind you I was young, only 17. I'm still young today by our old standards, but we live in a different time. 25 is old. Anyways, I learned that these letters helped me. Not only did they help, but they were a way of expression. These letter's were stories. I keep them all, and share their stories when I can.

I'm infected. Yeah I know shocker, but I feel someone should know my story. Someone should know what it's like to turn. I will continue to write until my body stops me. Maybe you, the reader will be able to determine the point one loses there humanity. If they ever do. Maybe the soul is trapped forever. The last 8 years of my life have been adventure that I hope no one else has to ever endure. Unfortunately, many people have already.

Yesterday, I was in New Jersey. There's a factory right across the Hudson river. In a town named Hoboken. These factories printed something called "Ration Cards." The quarantine zone in New York, has a system for the people who reside in there. The officials hand out a fair amount of these ration cards. The people then hand in the cards for some food. Of course there isn't a lot of cards to go around, because food is limited. The people there use them as a sort of currency. If someone did you a favor you'd give him some ration cards for food. I arrived at New York very late, so I was never allowed into the quarantine zone. I can sneak in, but I can't live there for very long. They would ask for my papers at almost all checkpoints, and when I try to get food. I can't live in the quarantine zone. However, I could live "off" the quarantine zone.

This guy named Alex lived in the quarantine zone, and we made a deal. I discovered the factory that prints these ration cards. I told him that I would be willing to hijack a box of cards for him. If I was given weapons, food, and supplies. Alex agreed, and I was on my way. The operation was perfect, and I've been scavenging ever since. I've been living off the land too. I have a garden, it's beautiful. Anyways, two days ago I ran out of supplies. I looked all around the area, and I couldn't find anything. A girl I found and traded with was gone. I was hungry and desperate. I went to Alex, and told him that I'd bring him more ration cards. Alex said "I'd love to do business Jim, but those cards aren't of worth anymore." He explained to me that the value was lost after a firefly attack. The fireflies gave them ration cards trying to help. The value of the cards was lost though, and they changed the look of the card. The old ones are worthless. I told him that they probably still print them at the same factory in Hoboken. He agreed to help if I can find the new cards.

So last night I went to New Jersey. Hoboken was a shit hole. Just like it was before the outbreak. I went to the factory. The lights were off and it was abandoned. I thought to myself that there has to be a box of the new cards there. I saw a room labeled "New shipment." I thought that the new cards had to be in there. I broke into the room, and there they were. A gold mine of the cards. I knew to not make the mistake of giving too many, because they would lose their value again. I grabbed as much as I could carry. On the way out though I saw a body. I looked at the deformed corpse. It was a disgusting monstrosity, but that's when I saw it. What I saw was a thick opening for spores. I went straight for my gas mask, and put it on. I observed the room, and saw them everywhere. How could I be so fucking stupid? How could I not notice? I went straight home, I left the boxes for anyone who reads this. If you have a gas mask, those boxes are there for you. I'm such a fuck up. I was like this in high school. I was really just a walking waste of space.

You know, I used to secretly want a zombie apocalypse. Silly me huh, I guess I got what I wanted. I always thought that if I was going to die, I would have gotten shot. I always thought that I would get infected by a bite. I always thought I would die saving the life of a girl. Nope, I took a breath of some damn spores. Little insignificant spores. Small, worthless, fucking spores. I don't know how much time I have. Maybe a day or two. I'm too much of a pussy to put a bullet in my brain. I'm going to turn, and I'm going to document every minute of it. At first I thought I didn't breath enough of the spores, and that maybe I'll be fine. I'm experiencing the symptoms. Nausea, fever, headaches. I'll be done for in about a day. I'll be back to write though in maybe an hour. At the end of every entry in this letter, I won't be able to guarantee that I'll be back. However I feel that I'll be ok to write another entry in an hour or so. Until then, ugh. Pray for me. If you still believe that is.


	2. Memoir

It's been an hour since my last entry. I have been exposed for about 7 hours. I've read all the books about this infection. There aren't many that you can find. The few books that I have read tell me the stages of the infection. The stage I'm in has symptoms like nausea, fear, and nervousness. I feel all three of these things, but maybe the fear is self explanatory. The fear I have so intense, it almost creates the nausea. One time I went on a roller coaster back in my home town. I was with my girlfriend at the time. When we were going up the seat suddenly made a noise. The noise was like nails on a chalk board. The cart then detached from the rail. Our cart had a piece of metal to keep us on the track. We were in a sudden free fall with zero G's before the metal stopped us. The coaster was the type of coaster that had the rail above you. If this metal thing gave in than we would fall to our deaths. It took the crews about 20 minutes to save us. They told us to make no sudden movements as we can break the backup metal. That moment of zero gravity followed by my girlfriend Jane's face was terrifying. It created that butterfly nausea I feel now. I wouldn't wish this upon anyone. Yet millions have experienced it.

I miss Jane sometimes, I'd like to think that she's still alive. I don't know for sure though. On the first day of the outbreak I was naive. I always thought that I was invincible, unstoppable, and too intelligent to die. I was stupid huh. On the first day I was with her, we were at a Starbucks. We saw the announcement, of this new cordyceps disease on the news. Despite popular belief, the infection didn't spread over night. In fact I knew a lot about it. I knew about the people exposed in the west coast. No one was really concerned over here though. Suddenly Jane and I watch this woman on the T.V. give the news. She looked nervous. She had her black eyeliner dripping as if she'd been crying. She looked as she knew that her life was over. She was stuttering, and was talking to her co host. The whole show that was usually good was very unprofessional. Papers were everywhere, the camera was tilted, and there was no backdrop behind her. Then she was told that she was on air and snapped into reality. The woman said words that changed my life forever. I now know that my life won't ever go back to normal.

"The cordyceps fungus has surprised biologists worldwide. It has been able to infect all mammals, and birds." The woman continued "The fungus has been able to thrive in meats like poultry, beef, and pork." She uttered the worst thing next "All crops and meats purchased in supermarkets should not be ingested. If you already have than visit your doctor immediately."

She continued for about three minutes, but I was tuned out. All I could think of is my dinner. I was retracing my steps for what seemed like an eternity. I then realized that I hadn't eaten anything contaminated, and had a moment of relief. I was happy for about 3 seconds, and then thought to myself. "What about Jane?" I then snapped back into reality when Jane called for me. It took her long to call me though. Perhaps she had the same thoughts as me. I don't know. I grabbed her. I grabbed her so tight that she flinched, and said ouch. I told her to follow me. She contested, and said "Jim, we need to know how to fight this." I told her that we needed to leave now. That shit was on all channels, and a lot of people were going to panic.

I got in my car with her, and drove her home. The first 10 or so minutes of the ride were silent. We both looked at the road and stayed dead silent. The Starbucks was about 30 minutes from her house, and there were no turns. It was one long road all the way to her house. We lived in a kind of boondocks. If you didn't have a car, you weren't going anywhere. I remember the road being empty, dark, and silent. I looked in her eyes, and she was terrified. I don't know what scared her more. Was it the whole ordeal, or was it the way I was acting. I was being urgent, the Starbucks was probably still full of people. At a red light I stopped the car. She broke the silence suddenly. She broke it so abruptly that it seemed as she was rehearsing the question in her head for the whole ride.

"Are we sick?" she said.

"No!" I replied with haste.

"How do you know?"

"Because I do. Calm down, if we were sick than we'd be dead already"

"Is it that serious?" she asked.

"It makes you lose your mind, It's like heroine, ecstasy, and every hallucinogen that exists all in one."

She was quiet again, and before we knew it we were in our neighborhood. There was so much quiet blackness in the streets. It's like that the night was afraid itself. I told her to close her eyes and just think of the beach. I told her to think of the peace of the waves, and that this was nothing to be worried about. I told her that this was probably some fake scare like swine flu. No one got hurt from swine flu. Within the last couple of minutes of the drive Jane whimpered.

"Are you crying?" I said

"I had turkey for dinner." she replied

"Don't worry Jane, we are going to be fine. I had steak." I lied to her

"What if we are both sick?"

I didn't reply to her. I couldn't. I was just a fucking kid. I didn't know how to handle this shit. I knew that she was probably sick. At the time I underestimated this sickness. I thought that sick people would just go crazy, and die. I wasn't able to comprehend what it really turns us into. I wasn't able to compute that Jane could actually turn into one of those fucking clickers. I didn't know that I would never see her again. We arrived at her house at around 10 pm. She hugged me for about a whole minute. Her body was warm, and alive. She was so human. She can't have been infected. She was too young, smart, and beautiful. Today no one is warm, only alive. I watched her go into the house from my car. I turned off the car, and just watched. Her father came out and waved to me. He came to my car to. Her father's name was "Guy." He worked as a contractor, and was with his friend from work. Guy told me that he heard about the news, and he was happy I brought Jane home safe. He asked me to bring his friend "Joel" home. Joel would have usually have taken public transportation home, but he needed to get to his daughter "Sarah." I agreed, and brought him home.

He seemed like a nice guy. He was going on about how his boss better not make him go to work the next day. He was telling me that he wanted to spend the next day with his daughter. It was his birthday the next day. Looking back on the whole thing. We really didn't have a fucking clue how bad this fungus was. After I dropped Joel off I called my mom. She was at some church that night about 45 minutes away. She usually stayed late at her night prayer service. She didn't pick up the phone. I figured she wasn't informed about the cordyceps fungus. I texted her to not eat any type of meat. I then went to my house. I opened the door of the car, and slammed it shut. I think it was out of nervousness. I don't know why, but my door was wide open looking like someone rushed out. I checked around, and nothing was stolen. I still can't explain it to this day. I took a shower, and laid in bed. It took about 5 minutes for me to drift to sleep, but Jane texted me before I could go into a real sleep. She told me that she felt anxious. She said that she was sick to her stomach. Her symptoms were a lot like the ones I have now. I told her to sleep good, and go to the doctor tomorrow if she feels worse. I told her to call me the next day. I was really tired that night, and rushed our conversation to an end. If I knew about what would happen the next day than I would of texted her all night. I would of never left her side.

I don't want to die. I really don't. I hope no one ever reads this, and I never have to share it. If I am dead though, and you are reading this. I just want you to know, don't ever leave someone who is sick. Either end their life by a gun, or stay with them until they try and eat you. Sounds crazy I know, but dying alone is just really fucking shitty. See you in an hour. If I'm not dead that is


End file.
